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The United States Drug Enforcement Administration wants to make synthetic marijuana illegal. The fake pot are products that have been enhanced with several chemicals similar to those found in natural marijuana. Synthetic marijuana are substitute plants that can be smoked are ‘upgraded’ with chemicals like JWH-018 JWH-073 JWH-200 CP-47, and 497 cannabicyclohexanol. These mimic the active ingredient, THC chemical, which gives marijuana users their ‘high’. The DEA and FDA warn that smokeable plant products increasingly popular among teens and young adults. With names like Spice, K2, Blaze, Red X Dawn and Ultra Wizard Smoke. Cases of teenagers and young adults hospitalized after smoking incense have been recorded. These types of synthetic marijuana products differ from others, like Marinol pills, frequently prescribed by doctors to patients who may be helped fight pain and aliments with a THC in pill form. Marinol drug provides the same THC substitutes without the tar in marijuana when smoked. The Drug Policy Alliance has determined in the past year that these products are not a harmless alternative to marijuana.

Last week, the FDA cracked down on caffeinated alcohol drinks, commonly called ‘black out’ by college students. Beverages like Four Loko and Joose have a much higher alcohol content than beer and most wines. Several incidents involving wild drinking parties by college and even high school students have made headlines of late. Some involved deaths and sexual assaults.

The synthetic marijuana products have become increasingly a nuisance according to health and law enforcement officials. Often sold as incense, these products have managed to slip under Federal laws, until now.

With the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration making synthetic marijuana illegal, officials hope to curb use of these smokeable plant products increasingly popular among teens and young adults. The fake pot are treated with chemicals like JWH-018 JWH-073 JWH-200 CP-47, 497 cannabicyclohexanol which cause similar effects as THC chemical in natural marijuana. These chemicals were originally created to be used as THC Substitutes in prescription drugs like Marinol pills, also known as pot pills. The use of products like Spice, K2, Blaze, Red X Dawn and Ultra Wizard Smoke have led to an increase of teenagers and young adults hospitalized after smoking incense. The Drug Policy Alliance has determined in the past year that these products are not a harmless alternative to marijuana.

1) I hate Spice/K2/whatever. Tried it a couple times, with results varying between a underwhelming head buzz to a violently ill freak-out. The stuff is not fun, and this is coming from a huge fan of natural cannabis.

2) Banning Spice misses the point entirely — other substitutes will crop up overnight. Huffman (aka “JWH”) and others have developed hundreds of synthetic cannabinoids, and this ban only covers a handful of them. Manufacturers will just slightly alter their chemical formulas. In fact, this has already happened in states like Kansas that banned Spice prior to federal involvement.

3) More fundamentally, Spice and similar substances only exist in the first place because of our ridiculous ban on natural cannabis. This is a predictable and repeatable result of any sort of prohibition: the emergence of more highly concentrated or legally ambiguous workarounds. Marijuana prohibition singlehandedly creates the demand for this much more dangerous recreational drug activity.

4) Marinol drug provides the same THC substitutes without the tar in marijuana when smoked.

No, not really. Here’s how it breaks down. Cannabis is a complex natural plant including dozens of cannabinoids, many of which are psychoactive. THC (tetrahydracannabinol-d-9) is the most prominent, but by no means the only, active cabbaninoid in marijuana. Even the strongest marijuana on earth contains no more than about 30% THC content.

Marinol is synthetic 100% pure THC — chemically identical to natural plant THC but synthesized in a lab. The medicine contains no other cannabinoids found in marijuana. Of particular note is the absence of CBD, a non-psychoactive cannabinoid found in marijuana that is responsible for many of the medical benefits from its use.

Spice/K2/etc have no THC whatsoever, artificial or natural. They contain synthetic cannabinoids that mimic the effect of THC. These are of much higher potency than anything found in natural marijuana.

(Sorry for the long comment!)

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Micky Says:
November 30th, 2010 at 2:55 pm

Where were all these fools when I was making bricks of hash out of cornsyrup and nutmeg and oregano ?